On Faith The Rev. Mike Young

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Read Gospel for hope, not history

The historical period around the time of Jesus' birth was a time of expectations.

Many were reading the Old Testament prophets as predicting that the Last Judgment was at hand, when God would intervene in history.

Some said that the Son of Man in the Book of Daniel would lead it. Some said Israel would be judged and only a righteous remnant would remain. The Dead Sea Scrolls suggest that some of the Qumran communities were determined to force God's hand and be that righteous remnant.

Some said the Roman rulers would be judged and Israel would rule, becoming Isaiah's Light Unto the Nations.

Many were nostalgic for the days of the Maccabean kings, Israel's longest run of political freedom before it was ended by Roman conquest.

Everybody was expecting it to get even uglier than it had already been.

And it had been ugly. Gamaliel, in Acts 6: 34-37, refers to two rebels, Theudas and Judas of Galilee, who led bloody tax revolts about that time. The Sicarii were sneaking into Roman Legion barracks and killing soldiers. Many people were killed or displaced. That may have been what led Mary and Joseph to flee from Nazareth, rather than a census.

The slaughter of the innocents in Matthew may refer to Herod's killing of his own son, the child of his Jewish princess wife, as a potential usurper of the throne.

The astrologer/astronomers of Persia (the Three Wise Men?) were predicting the end of one age and the beginning of a New Age. The precession of the equinoxes was bringing the sun on the first day of spring from the constellation of Aries, the ram, into that of Pisces, the fish. That was the sign in the heavens misunderstood as a star by later storytellers. The earliest known Christian symbol was the fish.

And, of course, almost everyone was angry at the Romans. Israel was never an easily subjugated people.

Others were angry at Herod, the never-accepted king put on the throne by the conquerors.

More were ticked at the Sanhedrin, the officials of the Temple at Jerusalem, for their cozy accommodation with the Romans.

All of this would spill over into bloodshed within a generation, and in 70 A.D. the Temple at Jerusalem would be destroyed.

The stories we have at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke were written late and prefaced documents written more than 80 years after Jesus' birth.

The stories may contain kernels of historical fact, but they weren't written as history. They were written to celebrate a beloved leader long dead who had created a new and unique community in their midst. Read them as loving tribute, as devotional literature, as poetry.

They were written to give shape to dreams of hope and peace and justice. Hear them in that spirit. We have need of those dreams as much today as ever.

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